Favorite Damselfish?

[steeler1]

When I first got into Marine fish and nobody was using a fishless cycle, we all used damselfish to "seed" our tanks because of their toughness and hardiness.

My first seeders were yellow tailed damselfish. After awhile and many expensive books I discovered that there were many beautiful damselfish avaiable besides the ones kept at the LFS. However most of us were so into keeping the more sensative spieces and overlooked them.

I finally found these; Beau Gregory (Eupomacentrus leucostictus) and they became my favorite damselfish but I was never able to find them again and I eventually returned to freshwater tanks.

Anyway what is your favorite Damselfish?

[Allecto]

I don't keep them, but just based on looks I think it is hard to beat the humble little Blue Green Chromis.

I love Domino Damsels, too. Both as sharply colored little babies, and as duller adults with edged scales.

[Cliff]

I`ve aways thought the yellow tail damsels and the blue damsels are very nice looking fish

I would not mind a aggrressive FOWLR set-up one day with a larger school of them.

[koaladarshana]

I've seen Garibaldis at my local science center aquarium and they are something to behold!

[kaybee]

Garibaldi damselfish are among the best one's that I've seen (though I've never owned one); they get fairly large, the one I saw was nearly a foot long.

Appearance-wise I also like the juvenile neon velvet damsels. Here's a picture of the one I had when it was young:



Unfortunately as they mature neon velvets lose all the blue colors and nearly all the white, becoming primarily solid dull black/brown fish with faint ash markings (kind of a reverse-ugly duckling affect).

Azure damsels are probably my next favorite, they can be a pain though because they tend to bite my hand and love to dislodge new coral frags that I place in my tank:

[Indian Woods Angels]

The Garibaldi is very cool. For a while it was on the list of fish that were protected from collection.

[koaladarshana]

kaybee, your damsels look great and those pictures are awesome! Keep up the good work!

[mermaidwannabe]

I've always liked the blue ones with the yellow tails, and also the all-blue ones. The black-and-white striped damsels are cool, too.

Garibaldis -- in the shallow waters off of the Pacific coast there are bright orange Garibaldis, quite common, really. The locals refer to them as "saltwater goldfish". I saw a lot of those when I lived in southern California. Not sure if the bright orange variety is also a species of damselfish, but it could get quite large and was really vibrant.

--mermaidwannabe

[steeler1]

Just a few others I've never seen in LFS. I didn't know that like many Angels and othe Marine spieces the juveniles will look much different than the adults.

[sheamurai]

I don't like ANY damsel fish anymore. The things are terrors in a tank unless its put together with them in mind. They are canny and almost impossible to catch without having to empty your bloody tank to get at them. Plus they have a charming habit of doing their own aquascaping - which, when you have corals, is a very unpleasant habit.

Not the fishes fault, I didn't do my homework, but having had a disagreeable experience with my velvet damsel, I will never own any again.

I nicknamed mine the damn-sel fish and regretted ever getting it!

I eventually managed to catch him and traded him away for some zoa frags to a fellow who has a nice 6ft tank with other aggressive fish to keep him in line. He is doing well there, tho his new owner chirped me a bit for not telling him about the little guys aquascaping talents.